Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

9:20-21
men much more atheistical than were those that
suffered such punishments; for by their madness it was
that all the people came to be destroyed.” 27
“When the city was encircled and they could no longer
gather herbs, some persons were driven to such terrible
distress that they searched the common sewers and old
dunghills of cattle, and ate the dung they found there;
and what they once could not even look at they now
used for food. When the Romans barely heard this,
their compassion was aroused; yet the rebels, who saw
it also, did not repent, but allowed the same distress to
come upon themselves; for they were blinded by that
fate which was already coming upon the city, and upon
themselves also.” 28
Israel’s idols are said to be of gold and of silver and of
brass and of stone and of wood, a standard Biblical
accounting of the materials used in the construction of
false gods (cf. Ps. 115:4; 135 :15; Isa. 37:19). The Bible
consistently ridicules men’s idols as the works of their
hands, mere stocks and stones which can neither see
nor hear nor walk. This is an echo of the Psalmist’s
mockery of heathen idols:
They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
They have eyes, but they cannot see;
They have ears, but they cannot hear;
They have noses, but they cannot smell;
They have hands, but they cannot feel;
They have feet, but they cannot walk;
They cannot make a noise with their throat,
Then comes the punchline:
Those who make them will become like them,
Everyone who trusts in them. (Ps. 115:5-8; cf. 135:16-18)
Schlossberg comments: “When a civilization turns
idolatrous, its people are profoundly changed by that
experience. In a kind of reverse sanctification, the
idolater is transformed into the likeness of the object of
his worship. Israel ‘went after worthlessness, and
became worthless’ (Jer. 2:5).” 29 As the prophet Hosea
thundered, Israel’s idolaters “became as detestable as
that which they loved” (Hos. 9:10).
St. John’s description of Israel’s idolatry is in line with
the usual prophetic stance; but his accusation is an
even more direct reference to Daniel’s condemnation
of Babylon, specifically regarding its worship of false gods
with the holy utensils from the Temple. Daniel said to king
Belshazzar: “You have exalted yourself against the Lord
of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His
House before you, and you and your nobles, your wives
and your concubines have been drinking wine from
them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold,
of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see,
hear, or understand. But the God in whose hand are
your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified”
(Dan. 5:23).
St. John’s implication is clear: Israel has become a
Babylon, committing sacrilege by worshiping false gods
with the Temple treasures; like Babylon, she has been
“weighed in the balance and found wanting”; like
Babylon, she will be conquered and her kingdom will
be possessed by the heathen (cf. Dan. 5:25-31).
Finally, St. John summarizes Israel’s crimes, all
stemming from her idolatry (cf. Rom. 1:18-32): This
led to her murders of Christ and the saints (Acts 2:23,
36; 3:14-15; 4:26; 7:51-52, 58-60); her sorceries (Acts
8:9, 11; 13:6-11; 19:13-15; cf. Rev. 18:23; 21:8; 22:15);
her fornication, a word St. John uses twelve times with
reference to Israel’s apostasy (2:14; 2:20; 2:21; 9:21;
14:8; 17:2 [twice]; 17:4; 18:3 [twice]; 18:9; 19:2); and
her thefts, a crime often associated in the Bible with
apostasy and the resultant oppression and persecution
of the righteous (cf. Isa. 61:8; Jer. 7:9-10; Ezek. 22:29;
Hos. 4:1-2; Mark 11:17; Rom. 2:21; James 5:1-6).
Throughout the Last Days, until the coming of the
Romans, the trumpets had blown, warning Israel to
repent. But the alarm was not heeded, and the Jews
became hardened in their impenitence. The retreat of
Cestius was of course taken to mean that Christ’s
prophecies of Jerusalem’s destruction were false: The
armies from the Euphrates had come and surrounded
Jerusalem (cf. Luke 21:20), but the threatened
“desolation” had not come to pass. Instead, the Romans
had fled, dragging their tails between their legs.
Increasingly confident of divine blessing, the Jews
recklessly plunged ahead into greater acts of rebellion,
unaware that even greater forces beyond the Euphrates
were being readied for battle. This time, there would be
no retreat. Judea would be turned into a desert, the
Israelites would be slaughtered and enslaved, and the
Temple would be razed to the ground, without a stone
left upon another.
26. Ibid., v.x.5.
27. Ibid., v.xiii.6.
28. Ibid., v.xiii.7.
29. Schlossberg, p. 295.
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